Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1887-07-13
GRANDMoTHER'S MONEY.

A House Cleaning which Came Ncar Cost
In: n Thousand Dollars.
''Bless and save US, mother, what be ye
doin'r' demanded Farmer Martin in great
as he came IN ut the kitchen
door for Jug of molasses and water.
'spm a-cleanin' house." said Mrs. Mar
tin.
If Mrs. Martin had been going 10 a mas
querade party she could scarcely have dis
guised herself more systematically. Her
head was tied up in roller-towcl whose
ends, escaping behind, "streamed like
meteor to the troubled airs" her portly
figure was encased in a coarse working
apron, her skirts were pinned up, and her
sleeves rolled high above the elbow.
Didn't know We calxelated to COM
mence to-day" said tho farmer.
''Wen, / didn't exactly" owned his
wife. "But the minute your mother made
up her mind she'd have the horse and
wagon and go over to Deacon Trudge's
widows to spend the day, l made up my
mind to begin house-cleanin'. You see,
Hosea, you know yourself that Mother
Martin is pleasant old lady, and set
deal OF store by her, but she can't bear to
have nothin' disturbed, and them files Of
old papers up CARROT, and heaps of rusty
tins and old bottles down cellar, and the
broken crockery back of the pantry door
that she always says she's going to mend
when she gets time, and the barrels of
rags in the store-room she's goin' to sort
over in a minute of leisure"--
''What be ye goin' to do with emp
asked Farmer Martin, as his wife paused
to draw a long, despairing breath.
They're gone," said Mrs. Martin, with
o roguish twinkle in her eyes.
"Gone wherel"
matilda sold the rags to q ragman be-
fore grandma's wagon was out of sight,"
said the enterprising matron. THE ra-
pers Elder oley gave me five dollars for,
because they dated clear back to Presi-
dent Zach Taylor's times, an he said
they'd be curiosity for the Young Mems
Reading Room, and the crockery and
the old tin cans and the bottles
as amt good for nothln' under crca-
tion, ] gave Bill Belts a quarter to take
'em down to the old well by the stone
fence, and fling 'eIn all in"
"Whatl" cried Mr.. Martin. "Filliu' Up
my ol1 well, ehl Where be 1 goin' TO
water the cattle, dye s'poser"
at amt but a little further to the
brock said Mira. Martin. Sand that
well amt safe. Never was, since the curb
rotted awayr'
MANY a gourd-shell Of pure cold water
I've drunk there, when the old house
stood close by undert the butternut treo, :"
said the farmer, with sigh, "afore we
pulled it down and built the new one"
''Well, yc won't never drink no MORE"
said Mrs Martin. "The waters most all
run out since we dug the new we'll down
here, aud I've had the children carrying
Cobtle stones there all the spring, at a
penny hundred, to get the hucfleberry
pasture cleared out little. And now the
old truck has gone atop Of it-and good
riddaTce of two bad things at once,
says Ir'
Mr.. Martin groaned.
"Well, mother" said he, "what bothers
me is-what will grandma say."
al don't s'pose she'll be plcasel," said
Mrs. Martin, stirring vigorously at a pail
Of whitewash. "But it's drne, and 1t
can't be undone; and, after all, what is
the use OF turning ones house into mag
pics nostri
Tie farmer filled up his jug and retreat
cd to the remotest fastnessos Of the timo-
thy meadow, resolved to be as far as pos
sible out of the way when the cid lady
came homo.
"Hetty likes her own way" said he,
''and so does mother, and when flint and
steel Come together, there's most gener-
ally firer'
But poor Mother Martin came homo in
quite fferent fashion from what they
expected. Struck down w tn apop'exy at
the neighbours house, she was carried
back across her own threshold, dead. And
Mrs. Martin, who, in spite of her peculi-
Gritios, had been fond of her mothor-in-
law, wept tears OF genuine grief, and
audibiy rejolced that grandni had neve r
known about tine selling Of the old papers,
and the filling up of the ancient well.
So Mrs. Martin, senior, was dead and
buried in the old cemetery by the noun
tain side
Strange, amt it'' said Mrs. Deacon
Trudge. Every body s'posed old Mrs.
Martin had money in the bank, and now
there amt sign of it to be foundp'
''All fooled away in them 6eceivin'
shares that her son Josiah was ruined
WITH" said Miss Grundy. THAT'S the
way it's gone, you nav depend
But MIR. and Mrs. Hosea Martin could
not believe that grandma could so far have
lost her senses IS to fritter solid money
away like that.
LAS sure as you live, Hosea," said the
wife, ''she's rut it away somewhere. In
q stocking or bag, or up the cLimb.y, or
under the bricks Of the old kitchen hearth.
and it must be found. For Masilda's sake
Grandma always said Ma,ty was to have
her money, and now that she is engaged
to Rufus Burton, and ALL
TITS my private opirion, Hetty," SAID the
farmer, shaking his head in a sort of dis
eouraging way, that you sold that money
done Up in the rag-bacsi'
'Nonsense!" said Mrs. Martin, growing
rale. 1T might have been in the files Of
LII A. 4
I've heard tell O. such things. And tC
speak the truth, Hosea, Pve been TO the
Elders and looked over every identica
6ne OF them papers. BY good luck, Tho
package hadn't even been united. But
there wasn't ncthln' there but printers
ink. But The rags-O, Hosea, / wouldn'i
know the man with the string OF bells and
the rag-wagon from job! And where be
went and whore he came from, the good
Lord Only knowsP
~ reckon you'll find that ho1se-cleanin'
cane petty expen sive," said Btr. Martin,
dryly.
Ali search proved unavd d;ling. Nothing
could be discovered of grandma's money,
no scrap OF paper 10 afford clew, no hid
den hoard, not even a word Of allusion tc
IL in the old Iady's neatly kept memoran-
dun book And 70 Matilda's exquisite
MULTIPLICATION, Mr. EAuIoS burton, alter
decent period OF Lime had elapsed, deli
cately gave her to understand that he
didn't feel able to marry at present. and
that, sooner than bind her by tic tram
nlcis OF q long engagement, he considered
IL ,tter TO release her from her troth-
Just as you please" said Matty Martin
with true New England spirit. All the
tears she shet were weps in secret, to the
great disappointment o. the peizhborhood.